DESCRIPTION Program Characteristics: The purpose of this competitive renewal of our training T35 program is to expose talented medical students to biomedical research and to encourage them to pursue careers as teachers and investigators in fields related to heart. lung, or hematological diseases. The program is designed to broaden and deepen the research experience of our better medical students and provide a training opportunity that will expose them to modern research techniques and scientific inquiry that will prepare them to pursue fundamental research in their future careers. Because of medical research, life is now longer and people are healthier than just a few years ago. With new discoveries almost within grasp, we will see even greater advances than those we have already known. With the increasing sophistication of new technologies and techniques, it is more important than ever to attract the best students into medical research and begin their research training as early as possible. The program is designed to encourage and expose medical students to scientific inquiry early in their careers and allow them to continue research activity throughout medical school. Trainees: The goal of the program is to enrich medical education, increase depth of scholarship and to challenge our talented medical students to consider careers in academic medicine, and to extend the frontiers of basic/clinical investigation. The training faculty will be drawn from a selected pool of funded investigators who are committed to academic excellence, research training. and who are skilled in modern research techniques and are proven mentors. The program is designed to: 1) match students and training faculty, based on research interest, 2) provide students with high quality scientific experience in both basic and clinical research, 3) to awaken and maintain the excitement and curiosity of these talented students in medical research. Training Environment: The program has a stable base of research support, facilities, and a cadre of funded investigators who can effectively provide the necessary leadership and supervision. The major program areas of the proposed training grant reflect the school strength in cardiovascular, developmental biology, angiogenesis, gene regulation. gene therapy, vascular biology, membrane biology, tumor biology, transplant biology and structural biology. Other equally vigorous laboratories are also included (e.g. alcohol, diabetes, oncology, endocrinology, neurobiology. and cancer). The strength of our training program is derived from four sources: 1) outstanding resources, and excellent clinical and biomedical research facilities, 2) a recognized group of clinical and basic science investigators committed to research training, 3) an intense interdisciplinary spirit which has culminated in the establishment of the Student Research Program in Academic Medicine, and 4) an unequivocal commitment from Dean Robert W. Holden.